Sustainability

Zero-Waste Auckland

Zero-Waste is a key goal for the Auckland Council and businesses are able to achieve this goal with Reclaim.

In 2005 Auckland Council adopted a zero waste policy: to progressively achieve zero waste status by 2040. Projections show that with current Auckland population predictions, without increased intervention, the annual amount of waste disposed to landfills will almost double within 10 years. This is a staggering increase from 1.5 million tonnes of waste to 3 million tonnes of waste.

Reclaim will help your business meet this challenge and divert your waste away from landfills. There are significant environmental risks associated with landfills and they can be detrimental to human health

When decomposing, organic waste generates a greenhouse gas called methane and many chemically treated materials generate leachates. Leachates are produced when percolating water and other liquids pick up heavy metals and decomposing organic wastes. Uncollected leachate can contaminate groundwater and soil.

Hazardous wastes can persist in the environment and enter the food chain, harming future generations. Waste incurs substantial economic costs: Approximately 93% of the materials we use never end up in saleable products at all but are discarded during the production process; approximately 80% of what we produce is discarded after a single use.

For all businesses it is important to adopt the reduce, reuse and recycle philosophy.

Costs for sending waste to landfill are increasing, so waste reduction also benefits the bottom line. Recent legislation (the Waste Minimisation Act) has introduced a $10 per tonne landfill waste levy, and this cost will be passed down to waste producers - i.e. Auckland businesses.

Contact Reclaim to help your business be more sustainable, it makes good business sense and good environmental sense.

We owe it to future generations to achieve a zero-waste Auckland.

Leachate is the dirty and dark water found in landfills and some are highly toxic in nature.